I think I'm too soft

[jodiewood]

Had a client in today for infills (l&p cnd), she's been coming to me for a good few months and has acrylic on still leftover from one of the NSS. She wears them square and really long so often has breakages due to them being so long and there's still the naff thick acrylic on zone 1 and it's so solid it just makes zone 3 snap up. Anyway...she came in for a sunbed previous to her appt and said she would pay for her nails now, so gave me the £20 for infills and that was that. Later she came back in for the appt, sat down at my desk and said "I've glued all but four down" , when she catches one instead of come in for repair she glues it. Normally she comes in every two weeks and usually they are mostly all fine but this time it was three as she couldn't get in last week. So she obviously knew when she came in earlier that she had 6 that would need to be soaked off and overlayed/tipped but didn't mention it. So I spent 3 and a half hours on this appt, soaked off 6, infilled 4, overlayed 4 and tipped two that I couldn't save the natural nail on. Then 2 coats of vinylux and top coat. And she walked out a happy lady with new nails and only payed £20. What would you have charged? Because I know her quite well aswell I just couldn't find it in me to say "that's gonna be £xx more" 😔

 

[anax]

I think you should have taken time to assess the nails and explained the extra work you would have to put in rather than a straight forward infill and why it is benefiting her & worked out a different pricing which she could agree to before carrying out the treatment, i don't do acrylic but with gel if they have come in for an infill and there are only 3 or 4 nails i normally advise them to be soaked off and do a new set and charge a price inbetween infill and full set. I find it hard cos im new in beauty and hate asking for more money but she should understand with all the extra time you've put in, but i think its better to set a price before proceeding then surprising them after you've finished.

 

[Rinn]

I think the best thing to do next time she's in .....before you start her service give her an estimate of how much it will cost .
She then has the optien to continue or not...if she queries you just say that you cannot continue to do extensive repair work on her or anyone else nails that take hours for €20. If she's a fair minded person she will understand and if she's not ......what have you lost really...sounds nightmarish for such a small payment.

Don't let her prepay either..explain due to the length of time etc of the last service you cannot estimate a price till you have her sitting in front of you.